State-of-the-Art Weaponary Machine guns today are generally defined as firearms that shoot automatically more than one shot without manual reloading by a single function of…
World War II Japanese home front patriotic fan. Made of bamboo and paper it measures 7-1/2 inches long and opens up to be about 10…
Original silk art painting done immediate post World War I during the occupation of Germany. Entitled, “Neuwied Germany, Co. A, 4th M.G., 2nd Div., With…
Australian gold gilt and enameled veteran’s pin for the 2/1 Machine Gun Battalion Association’s 50th anniversary. Enameled grey, black and yellow triangle insignia of the…
Sterling silver U.S. doughboy dog tag holder and locket. The outside of the holder is engraved “2nd Lieut. H.W. Billman 109 M.G. Bn. 28th Division…
ABOVE: British Machine Gun Corps shoulder patches as adopted for the 101st Machine Gun Company. This rare and unique patch features the image of a…
ABOVE: Right side view of the Type 11 LMG In preparing research for this article it was found that there was no consistent consensus on…
World War I A.I.F (Australian Imperial Forces) aluminum dog tag. Engraved “92 T. Maxwell, 10 M.G. Coy RC” (Tag #92, T. Maxwell, 10th Machine Gun…
TOP: German interwar period paperweight or desk ornament. 6-inch long silver German Maxim MG08 with Z.F. 12 optical sight mounted on a prone sled mount…
(Left) Pre World War II U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Armored Tank Corps Division with red horse’s head and red stripe on yellow shield designating the…
World War I era U.S. Cavalry officer’s tunic collar insignia. Worn in pairs, these collar insignia represent the Machine Gun Squadron of the cavalry. From…
Japanese interwar or early World War II machine gunner commemorative discharge sake pourer featuring the Army star, Japanese battle flag and a Type 11 light…
Oil on canvas painting (1906) entitled ‘Off Duty’ by Julius M. Price; in the days when the British Royal Navy ruled the Seven Seas. Sharp…
British Machine Gun Corps ‘trench art’ lighter. Copper and brass in the shape of a book with the collar insignia of the M.G.C. crossed Vickers…
Large Austrian bronze artwork casting of a three man Austrian Army machine gun team firing the Schwartzlose M07/12 water-cooled machine gun in full combat gear….
Postcard of an artist’s rendering of an Austrian soldier firing the Schwartzlose M07/12 water-cooled machine gun during a famous battle in Serbia on August 16,…
Indian officer’s interwar helmet badge for the machine gun section of the Jodphur Lancers. South African 1st Machine Gun Squadron Transvaal bronze cap and collar…
World War II Japanese machine gun proficiency badge. White metal material (35mm) with crossed Type 96 light machine guns to center. Hook and hinged latch…
Canadian 4th Machine Gun Company cap and collar badge. The cap badge is made of Browning copper with a maple leaf background. This badge is…
Canadian Boyle’s Yukon Motor Machine Gun Detachment cap and collar badges. The cap badge features crossed Vickers under the King’s crown and a prospecting pan…
French made overseas cap made for U.S. forces in a style called a ‘Belgium Hat.’ It is unlined and a simple rectangle construction. Sewn to…
Polish superior machine gun marksmanship sleeve badge. Brass image of five rounds on a machine gun belt. Sewn on sleeve, this was used in the…
Canadian machine gun officer’s gold gilt cap badge. Very early World War I version with crossed Maxim machine guns (rather than the later crossed Vickers…
U.S. World War II transit poster ‘They also serve, who buy WAR BONDS 7th War Loan‘ by Phil Lyford, 1945. Oblong full color poster showing…
Japanese commemorative veteran’s time in service sake cup with kanji denoting service in the Navy’s 40th Marine Regiment with a nicely detailed image of a…
Polish Central Gunnery School in Torun badge. Silvered multi-construction badge features the crowned eagle to top with a horizontal machine gun belt to the center…
Original pen and ink wash drawing entitled ‘Pirouette’ of a World War II British Home Guard soldier manning a Lewis gun on an improvised anti-aircraft…
World War I Canadian 3rd Machine Gun Company, 1st Canadian Division large white metal cap badge featuring a Vickers MkI water-cooled machine gun to the…
Col. Lewis was a United States Military Academy (West Point) graduate (1884) and spent twenty-five years in the United States Army assigned primarily to Coastal Artillery units. He was a keen inventor and received a number of patents for artillery rangefinders and other artillery related equipment. He also studied in Europe for several years learning about the armament industry. It was while in Europe that he discovered that America was at least ten years behind in artillery and small arms manufacturing – particularly machine guns….
Sweden was not shy in their attempt to modernize their army at the turn of the twentieth century by equipping it with modern machine guns. The m/95 Maxim, the m/99 Nordenfeldt (Konstruction Bergman-Nordenfeldt) and m/00 Hotchkiss all found a home at one time or another in the Swedish army from 1895 to 1914. From 1914 the m/14 Schwarzlose was adopted and widely used. The first 511 Schwarzlose machine guns were imported from Austria but in 1917 Sweden began making them at the Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori (GF) in Eskilstuna….
Machine guns today are generally defined as firearms that shoot automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. This modern definition has come about due to the development of such a weapon as pioneered by Hiram Maxim and John Browning and is subsequently used for all weapons that employ this mechanical means in firearms today…
Collectors and historians are familiar with the Russian “Tractor Cap” or “Snow Cap” Maxim machine gun. It was a modification of the PM1910 (Pulemyot Maxima na stanke Sokolova or “Maxim’s machine gun Model 1910 on Sokolov’s mount”) that did away with the small water filler hole in the water jacket and instead a much larger hole was cut into the top of the water jacket that allowed snow, ice or larger volumes of water to be introduced quickly into the water jacket. The hole was covered by a tractor radiator cap that was hinged on one side and secured by a clasp on the other side…
The Japanese had a unique system of naming and numbering their weapons using two basic methods. One method referred to the Type number, which represented the last two digits of the Japanese Jimmu Year. For the Type 92 machine gun, this represented the year 2592 (or 1932 on the Gregorian calendar). This is noted in three Japanese kanji characters arranged in a vertical column on top of the gun’s receiver…
Captain Herbert W. McBride of the 21st Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, wrote in his excellent book A Rifleman Went to War the following concerning the use of the Colt Automatic Gun Model 1895. “We Canadians of the Second Division were originally equipped with Colt guns… I imagine I can hear some sniffles and horse-laughs. You think that the Colt is a poor weapon, eh? Well, just let me tell you something for your information and instruction… Never have I seen any machine gun….
Right side view the Italian FIAT Revelli Model 1914 with top ejection port cover open. Italy was the first country in the world to officially…
Right side of the U.S. Colt Vickers Model of 1915 on the Mark IV tripod shown with the condensing hose and tin lined water box…
The Automatic Machine Rifle, Caliber .30, Model of 1909 – also known as the “Benét-Mercié.” Weighing in at about 30 pounds it was considered a…
British Machine Gun Corps ‘trench art’ lighter. Copper and brass in the shape of a book with the collar insignia of the M.G.C. crossed Vickers…
Overall right-hand view of the MG11. Hiram Maxim was born in the United States in 1840. His genius lay in his ability to grasp the…
Photo postcard showing the rare Puteaux M1905 machine gun. The caption reads “Mailly Camp – Infantry soldiers operating a machine gun in an open field”…
The jewel of their aircraft collection is this flying Handley Page Halifax II (III) “Friday the 13th” that is operated and maintained at the Yorkshire…
The Tri-Service Asian Defense and Internal Security Event for Land, Sea and Air and Security Exhibition was held at the IMPACT Exhibition Center in Bangkok,…
Andreas Wilhelm Schwarzlose of Charlottenburg, Germany was a well known and respected inventor and arms designer working out of the gun making center of Suhl,…
Dr. Philip H. Dater takes aim with the SSP-1M 4-barrel underwater pistol. The sound signature was recorded as 160.1 dB average in open air. (Dan…
Laurence Benét test fires the Hotchkiss Model 1897 mounted on a wheeled carriage. The Hotchkiss Model 1914 was the standard French Army heavy machine gun…
While the insignia of US Infantry is crossed rifles, its spirit is the spirit of the bayonet. Every American infantryman, indeed every American soldier, learns…
FROM LEFT: LEFT TWO: A regiment in their own right, the cap badge and shoulder patch of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders as worn in…
Located in the heart of Warsaw, Poland, the Museum of the Polish Army holds some 300,000 historical treasures dating from 966 through World War II. …
On October 29, 1918, just two weeks until the end of the war, and just before the 80th Division was committed to combat, the men…
Light artillery field pieces from World War I and World War II aligned along the outdoor terrace level. Located in the center of Athens just…
Machine Gun Squad, Company B, Second U.S. Infantry. Note the rare leather strap hanging arrangement for the steam condensing hose. Photo circa 1917. History 2004…
Skarżysko-Kamienna is a relatively young city receiving its city charter in 1923, yet a settlement has existed in the Kamienna river valley since prehistoric times due to the ore-rich region in which it is located. Steel mills prospered in the region and the State Ammunition Factory, as well as many other defense related industries after World War II, are located in the city. It was here where Polish squads ordered by Józef Piłsudski fought during World War I….
Argentina was an early user of the Maxim and began by ordering 50 Maxims from the Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company Limited in England in 1895. These first 50 guns were given Argentine Army serial numbers 1-50 and chambered in the 7.65×53 Belgium Mauser caliber. In 1898, a second order of the Model 1895 was placed with Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken (DWM), a licensed Maxim manufacturer in Germany, for another 150 guns still chambered for the Belgium Mauser 7.65×53 caliber. These guns were serially numbered 51-200.
